1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a flat knitting machine.
2. Prior Art
A method of knitting a piece of non-sewn clothes utilizing a flat knitting machine is disclosed wherein, using at least one pair of needle bed having head portions opposed to each other, loops of a knitted fabric are suitably transferred between the opposed needle beds to form the body, the sleeves and other parts into a unitary fabric. (The official gazette of Japanese Patent Publication Application No. Heisei 3-75656, the specification of British Patent No. 2,183,264, the official gazette of Japanese Patent Publication Application No. Heisei 4-15301).
It is disclosed in the official gazette of Japanese Patent Publication Application No. Heisei 3-75656 or the specification of British Patent No. 2,183,264 mentioned above that, in order to knit a tubular knit fabric of an arbitrary links and links pattern including a rib stitch, a purl stitch, a links and links stitch and so forth using a well known type of V-bed knitting machine, needles provided in a juxtaposed relationship on the needle beds are used in a divided condition such that, for example, odd-numbered ones of them are used to knit a front portion of a tubular knit fabric while even-numbered ones of them are used to knit a back portion of the tubular knit fabric. For example, in order to knit a front portion of a tubular knit fabric of a wide rib stitch, such preparations for knitting of the front portion of the tubular knit fabric as to transfer those of loops of the front portion of the tubular knit fabric carried on the needles on the front needle bed which are to be formed as purl stitches in the current course to the back needle bed in accordance with a design pattern are completed first, and then knitting of the front portion of the tubular knit fabric for the current course is performed. Thereafter, prior to knitting of a back portion of the tubular knit fabric, loops of the front portion of the tubular knit fabric knitted on the back needle bed are transferred back to the front needle bed, and those of loops which are to be formed as purl stitches of the back portion of the tubular knit fabric in the current course are transferred to the corresponding needles of the front needle bed in accordance with the design pattern in a similar manner as with the front portion of the tubular knit fabric, whereafter knitting of the back portion of the tubular knit fabric is performed. The sequence of operations described above is repeated to form a tubular knit fabric.
The official gazette of Japanese Patent Publication Application No. Heisei 4-15301 discloses two embodiments for knitting a tubular knit fabric: one of the embodiments is directed to a knitting method for a tubular sweater of a pullover of a Raglan sleeve type using a so-called "four-bed flat knitting machine" wherein a pair of upper beds and a pair of lower beds are provided in pair on the front and the back; and the other embodiment is directed to another knitting method for a tubular sweater of a pullover of a set-in sleeve type wherein the tubular sweater is knitted by classifying needles on a flat knitting machine which includes a pair of front and back needle beds.
In knitting using a flat knitting machine which includes a pair of front and back needle beds such as the knitting method just described, since a tubular knit fabric is knitted using only selected ones of the needles of the opposed needle beds without modifying the structure of the needle beds themselves, the distance between adjacent needle loops on a needle bed becomes larger than the distance between adjacent needles on the needle bed, and consequently, the size of a knitted sinker loop becomes extremely greater than the size of a needle loop. This results not only in degradation of the feeling of the knit fabric, but also in degradation of the elastic property, particularly the elastic property in a lateral direction, which is the most significant characteristic of a knit fabric. For example, with a needle bed of the 7 gauge, the distance between adjacent needles is 3.628 mm, but if alternate ones of the needles are used, then the distance between adjacent used needles is 7.257 mm. When a plain stitch is knitted, two sinkers are present between adjacent loops, which further increases the length of a sinker loop between the needle loops and further deteriorates the knitting conditions.